Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Hey, I’m famous…seriously…my full name is Kelly Osborne. Okay, so I’m not THAT Kelly Osbourne (see, it’s spelled differently anyway) but I’m still famous. Check it out:

http://www.bearfootart.com/customer_work.htm

Bearfoot Art has been nice enough to feature some of my work that uses their beads in their on-line gallery. Scott is really a true artist with glass so I’m thrilled that my work made the “cut.” If you aren’t familiar with the artistry of lampwork glass beads, take a stroll around their site – lots of beautiful work!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Ours was pretty low key…just me, DH, kidlet and my parents. We decided a full holiday meal for such a small group was kind of silly and since mom and I were both sick during the week prior anyway (of course) it just wasn’t in the cards this year. So, my parents ordered most of the meal from the local Honeyglazed Ham store and got the pies from Marie Callendar’s and I made a special salad that we have every year. It all worked out to a reasonably decent Thanksgiving dinner without the mess and stress except for my dad who had to deal with picking up the food which apparently didn’t go very well. He was at the store for over 30 minutes and said that the staff was not very bright and also had difficulty speaking English. We never did get our sweet potatoes and mom had to make some up at the last minute from a can. Didn’t bother me because I don’t like them anyway, but dad was pretty annoyed. I guess I can’t blame him. I know in this PC day and age we’re not supposed to say things like this, but it really is frustrating to have people serving in positions that require communication skills who can’t speak the language proficiently enough to do their job. It’s not fair to customers OR to the employee who is now in the situation of having to deal with irate customers that he/she is not prepared to handle.

Okay, that’s my “issue” for the day ;-) Let’s move on to more fun and frivolous things. Remember the pictures of bead show purchases I posted a while back? Well, I’m finally digging into that stash to get some stuff made. Up next is a picture of my latest creation made with the glass leaves I bought at the bead show. I still have half a strand left so there’ll be more pieces like this as I’m very pleased with how it turned out.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Oh stop groaning people...Old Navy is already advertising on TV about their holiday stuff so I figure I can do it, too! I got the website all up to date for the holidays with all the new items and some fun holiday-themed graphics. I'm also running a special holiday sale from Nov. 18 - 23: 15% off all orders of $20.00 or more. In order to get the discount, customers need to enter a special code at checkout so if you see something you'd like...e-mail me at stamparrot@hotmail.com and I'll provide you with the code. Everything is pretty much one of a kind so it's first come, first served :-) You can see it all at http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net

In other news...well, there isn't much other news LOL! We're heading into the annual family battle of "who is hosting which holiday event at which house" which is always fun and also trying to pry Xmas lists out of people so I can get started on shopping. I was WAAAYYY behind last year and it sucked. We spent a fortune on overnight shipping trying to get presents to people on time. DH and I also had a big argument over (of all things) Christmas cards. I wanted to skip them for a changed (since I was already so far behind) and he was adamant about sending them out...and I never knew he cared! So I ended up frantically scrambling to get them in the mail the week before Christmas and it was awful. SOOOO not doing that this year!

Ryan seems to be okay healthwise for the moment. He's finishing up a second round of antibiotics still trying to get rid of that sinus infection. The first round seemed to work, but his symptoms came back about 3 days after the last dose so we're doing another dose. His aunt and uncle have very kindly agreed to babysit for us this weekend so DH and I can go have dinner at our favorite special restaurant in Laguna Beach. Haven't been in ages so it will be fun to go back. Yummm...can't wait.

Speaking of which...I have no idea what we're having for dinner at home tonight LOL! Better go figure that out...

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

...relaxation is sooo wonderful. After all the illness and craziness of the past few months, DH agreed to send me on a mini-vacation over the weekend. I stayed in a hotel for a couple of days, shopped, ordered room service, worked on jewelry, watched football and just generally vegged out. It was AWESOME! I even got a room with a gorgeous ocean view and even though it's November, our weather cooperated and it was sunny and beautiful over the weekend so the view was truly spectacular.

I came back refreshed and relaxed and ready to take up all my responsibilities again. Woo hoo! Let's hear it for vacations!!

It was especially nice to have a nice long stretch of uninterrupted beading time. I was able to pump out a BUNCH of the projects that have been piling up which really helped with my stress level. After a while, I've got all these ideas in my head clamoring to get out and I can't ever get to them and it just starts to make me get kinda buggy.

Stay tuned for a picture of all the stuff I got done and I hope to have a pre-holiday sale section up on the website soon at http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net

I finally got some stuff done! Massive amounts of laundry....woo hoo! I did all my laundry and all of Ryan's laundry which essentially took the entire weekend (did I mention it's been a while since I've been able to get around to doing laundry?) DH had to fend for himself LOL!

Okay, okay, I made some new jewelry pieces, too, LOL! I used one of the large, rectangular pendants I bought at a recent bead show. It's a beautiful piece of agate (not sure what type - possibly Crazy Lace Agate) that has really gorgeous shades of gray, cream, brown and rust running through it. I mixed it with some silvery-gray freshwater pearls and some faceted smoky quartz rondelles and used accent pieces of Bali vermeil. I had enough beads to make matching earrings and bracelet to go with the main necklace. I think it came out pretty well and will post a picture of it here.

Now, I'm off to upload it to the website where it will be availble for purchase. Check out http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net under the "New Items" section sometime between now and tomorrow.

We had some bad news this last week - my elderly grandmother fell in her nursing home and broke her hip. She had to have hip replacement surgery last week. She's recuperating, but not doing all that well. I think it's very difficult for elderly people to handle surgery and anesthesia - they have a tough time bouncing back. Mom and I sent some flowers on Friday (grandma is out of state) and I plan to follow up with a card and some pictures of Ryan from Halloween as soon as I get a chance.

DH and I got a chance to go to the movies Saturday night (thanks mucho to my parents for babysitting Ryan!) We saw "Friday Night Lights." I really enjoyed it, but I think DH was bored. I'm a big football fan so it was just perfect for me, but DH just has no patience for movies where there aren't explosions and/or gunfire in the first few minutes and continuing throughout. In fact, the more explosions and gunfire and appearances by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the better as far as he's concerned. Ever since seeing "Saving Private Ryan," I've just given up on that type of movie...can't stand it any more. Okay, so I'm a big wuss, but the effects have just gotten too realistic for me and I'm tired of having nightmares for weeks after seeing certain films - it makes me feel like my brain needs a good scrubbing so I can "unsee" the disturbing images.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Well, this is it...finally election day is here. I think it's fair to say that this is probably the most important election that's been held during my adult lifetime so I hope everyone registered and went to vote. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone wouldn't exercise their rights...especially when you think of how many people fought and died so you can have that right (and that's even more true if you are a woman or a minority!)

I won't reveal how I voted because I think that's personal, but it was a very painful, drawn-out decision because I have serious problems with both sides. In fact, I didn't make my final decision until late last night...nothing like waiting til nearly the last minute LOL! I suppose only history will show who will win and whether that will be good for the country or not. It will be interesting to find out the results - I wonder how soon or late the networks will begin "calling" the results or if there will be legal challenges lasting weeks again.

On a side note...our company had a fire drill today which I thought was really stupid in light of everyone kinda being on edge about there maybe being some kind of attack to disrupt our elections. Really, really cruel and stupid IMO.

I guess that's it except I've had a couple of "bites" on my beading article - will let you know if turns into anything. In the meantime I'm working on a new necklace with a beautiful agate pendant as a centerpiece and some pretty silver pearls and faceted smoky quartz as accents. Will post when finished.

Monday, November 01, 2004

We had a great Halloween! Kidlet dressed up as Spiderman and was a big hit in the neighborhood. Came home with TONS of candy! DH and I had so much fun taking him around for trick-or-treating...it was awesome! My parents were kind enough to man our door to hand out candy so we could both go with Ryan.

He's definitely feeling a lot better due to the antibiotic. His appetite is coming back and the cough is a lot less frequent and MUCH less phlegmy-sounding. It's great to see my happy kiddo again.

I FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY got some beading time in this weekend. Got the repair job done AND finished the last piece of the emerald tubes set. Will post pic shortly. I even had a chance to get a second piece started...plain stringing...no peyote tubes involved woo hoo! This one has a beautiful, rectangular stone pendant as a centerpiece and I'm playing with some matching pearls and faceted stones for the necklace part. I've got to do some research and find out what kind of stone this is...very pretty earth tones on a creamy background...I think it's some kind of jasper...will post pic and name if I am able to find out what it is :-)